i'm mariko oi in singapore, the headlines. all eyes on china's president xi jinping as he wraps up the annual national people's congress and gets set for his second term at the top. devastating wildfires in south—west australia leave hundreds of people unable to return home. host destroyed and cattle killed. —— homes. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. also in the programme. uber cancels all testing of driverless cars in north america, after one of its vehicles strikes and kills a woman in arizona. and eight years on — has a statue of the virgin mary stopped god—fearing locals good morning.

it's 9am in singapore, one am in london and nine am in beijing where china's president xi jinping will deliver a speech to close the annual session of the national people's congress. it's been a significant congress with the presidential term limits being lifted — in effect making xi jingping ‘president for life‘ — should he choose to be. joining me from beijing is stephen mcdonell. president xi is expected to start speaking very shortly? absolutely. he will be getting up here at the great hall of the people behind me and closing of this truly historic congress, one which has gotten rid of the 2—term limit, enabling him to

stay on for president for as long as he chooses. soon after he speaks, they will be the ones a year press conference from china's number two leader. it will be interesting to see if he gets asked about the extension of the presidential term limits and concerns this is putting too much power in the hands of one person. it's interesting, xijinping could have stayed on in power effectively as the head of the military. also as the chairman of the communist party but he obviously wa nts the communist party but he obviously wants this title of president as well or they wouldn't have bothered to make this change. it means, of course, that he is going to be around for some time, i would imagine and so people had better get used to seeing and hearing him as the leader here in china. as you say, that news got a lot of attention but there has been a lot of many other major announcements as well. yes, we could see questions at

the press conference about the new anticorruption the press conference about the new anticorru ption body which the press conference about the new anticorruption body which is being set up here at the congress. one of the reasons xijinping has set up here at the congress. one of the reasons xi jinping has so set up here at the congress. one of the reasons xijinping has so much power is because of the widespread anticorru ption crackdown within power is because of the widespread anticorruption crackdown within the communist party. 1.5 million people have been punished and he has made a lot of enemies, making it very difficult to him to step down, in fa ct. difficult to him to step down, in fact. now there is a new body extending this corruption drive into the general public. we could see questions about that today. also, we have seen the appointment of the new head of the peoples bank of china. we have seen a xi jinping's head of the peoples bank of china. we have seen a xijinping's name head of the peoples bank of china. we have seen a xi jinping's name and philosophy placed in the country's constitution. it has been a very big conference but really, what everything else has been swamped by, is the power that xi jinping has

been able to draw around himself in various ways and it's hard for anything else to cut through. stephen mcdonell in beijing. thank you for the updates. we will have more on that lightspeed shortly. —— live speech. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. uber has suspended all tests of self—driving cars after a woman in arizona was killed in a collision. at the time of the accident, the vehicle was running in autonomous mode with an operator at the wheel. uber described what happened as incredibly sad and said it was fully co—operating with local authorities. our technology correspondent dave lee reports from san francisco. it was late sunday night when, according to police, elaine herzberg was struck by uber‘s self—driving car. the 49—year—old was crossing the road, but not using the pedestrian zone. there was a driver behind the wheel, but uber said the vehicle was in full autonomous mode, meaning it was handling all aspects of the driving. miss herzberg was taken to hospital,

but died from her injuries. taking to twitter, uber‘s chief executive, dara khosrowshahi, said the news from arizona was "incredibly sad", adding: as part of its licensing agreement, uber must keep detailed logs in case of an incident like this. although miss herzberg is the first pedestrian to be killed by an autonomous vehicle, her death comes one year after uber temporarily took its self—driving cars off the road following an accident that left a volvo suv on its side in arizona. the programme was later reinstated. there are so many motor vehicle deaths in the united states, and generally, every year. and the ultimate goal of self—driving cars is to eliminate those entirely. but these are complex systems that are just sort of starting to navigate the roads. arizona has positioned itself as a testing ground for this new technology. but incidents like this will no doubt concerned those who do not believe these systems are yet safe enough

to be on our roads. also making news today — britain and the european union say they've agreed the terms of a transitional period after brexit. the deal covers citizenship and financing the divorce. but there still remains the sticking point of how to avoid a hard border between northern ireland and the irish republic, which is farfrom resolved. the bbc‘s damian grammaticas explains. in the withdrawal agreement will be the eu's preferred option that northern ireland, part of the uk, remains still under the eu's rules, regulations, customs zone as well, the customs union, if a better solution can't he found. now, the uk still doesn't view that as the preferred option. that still has to be sorted out in the negotiations, how that would work. and that is the big stumbling block. a ukrainian military pilot blamed by russia for the downing of malaysian airlines flight mh17, has reportedly taken his own life.

vladyslav voloshyn has always denied russian allegations that he was behind the tragedy. dutch investigators concluded that a russian missile destroyed the jet, killing 298 people in 2014. police investigating a series of bombings in the us state of texas say they have no clear idea what motivated the attacks and they have no suspects. four devices have exploded in the city of austin this month. two african—american men were killed in the initial attacks. a third device wounded an elderly hispanic woman. australian actor margot robbie has taken time out of a publicity tour for the peter rabbit film to get close to another small furry animal. the co-ca. it is about the size of a cat and has been described as the happiest animal on the planet. —— quokka.

they are only found in western australia, and have brought a big boost in tourism with people flocking there in search of the perfect ‘selfie'. an international team of chemical weapons experts has arrived in salisbury to examine the nerve agent used to poison the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter, yulia. the bbc understands british investigators have broadened their search to include a car that yulia skripal is believed to have travelled in, as our diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. the focus today shifted to the village of durrington, ten miles north of salisbury, where investigators removed a car that was used to pick up yulia skripal from the airport the day before she and her father sergei were attacked with nerve agent. nearby, at the military research complex at porton down, inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog, the opcw, were due to start analysing the nerve agent that british experts believe came from russia.

in brussels, the foreign secretary arrived to brief eu counterparts, saying russian denials were increasingly absurd. this is a classic russian strategy of trying to conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and obfuscation. there is scarcely a country round the table here in brussels that has not been affected in recent years by some kind of malign or disruptive russian behaviour. eu foreign ministers issued a statement expressing their unqualified solidarity with the uk, and taking its assessment that russia was to blame extremely seriously. the eu and nato speaking as one. what is absolutely clear is our full solidarity with the united kingdom, and oui’ extreme concern about what has happened. it is really unacceptable. all 29 nato allies stand united.

we stand in solidarity with the united kingdom. and the uk is not alone. but in moscow, as president putin began his fourth term, the defiance continued. his foreign ministry dismissing the eu statement as an anti—russian reflex. as for russia's diplomats in london, well, some of these officials and their families will be heading home tomorrow, 23 in all, with a similar number of british diplomats leaving moscow shortly. tomorrow, the national security council will meet to decide britain's next step. there is a live debate within government — should they retaliate and escalate, or simply do nothing? should they kick yet more russian diplomats out of the embassy here, or should they find new ways of penalising russia 7 the risk for britain is that a bilateral confrontation with russia might overshadow attempts to maintain international pressure. back in salisbury, the police tonight revealed the full scale of the investigation,

with 250 counter—terrorism officers examining 4,000 hours of cctv, 800 exhibits and 400 witness statements. detectives said this could last many months. james landale, bbc news. residents in parts of australia hit by bushfires have been told it's still not safe to return home, after more than seventy properties were destroyed. officials say the fires in new south wales and neighbouring victoria are now being brought under control, but hundreds of cattle have been killed and over 100,000 acres of land burnt. i asked dr george carayanopoulos, who analysed previous bushfire disasters in australia, if they were becoming worse due

to climate change — as some experts suggest. i think what we are seeing in australia at the moment and flooding events. so overall, i think, it is a fairly typical pattern, although we are seeing these events happen very frequently, particularly in those summer months and across the usual window that we see during that time. and is there anything particularly different about this one from previous ones that you've studied? yeah, look, i think this event is really interesting. there have been some very important lessons learned from the past, most notably, the 2009 black saturday bushfires. so in the fire event we've seen so far, fortunately, we haven't seen any loss of life, although there has been extensive property damage. i think one of the key lessons learned has been the way in which the community prepares and gets ready for these events and is really able to have time to try and evacuate prior to a fire front hitting and being upon them. right. now, as you say, communities need to prepare and have the time, because obviously, these bushfires do spread incredibly quickly, so response time is crucial.

so what can governments do to help communities prepare, and what have they learnt of the previous incidents you mentioned? yeah, some of the clear lessons that have been learned in the past have really been around the messaging to the public, in terms of whether they really need to leave early or stay. in previous events, such as black saturday in victoria in 2009, the vast majority of people who were killed during that incident actually died on the road trying to leave. so the emergency warnings and the different statuses around that are really critical, and emphasising to people that there is a point in which it is actually too late to leave and you must stay, and then hopefully, are able to come out of the other side of that fire event without any damage to yourself or property. right, and we know that technology is changing the way emergency services now deal with disasters like this. so what major changes have you seen? yeah, this is a really interesting question. so one of the things that they are the fire services are extensively now is drone technology, and that really provides the ability to get an aerial view of a fire event, how quickly it's progressing and how it's moving. that's also really helpful in terms of predictive modelling that happens at the same time.

and these are really critical in terms of trying to get a really good bird's eye view of the event as it's unfolding and try and evacuate people as quickly as possible. the other issue, of course, is about the messaging around emergency alerts and warnings and it's been interesting, in this event, that in the aftermath, there have already been a few issues arising about whether residents had sufficient emergency warnings sent to them, whether mobile phone coverage and towers actually were able to be effective in that case, and it did ultimately rely a lot on the emergency services going back and conducting door—to—door evacuation warnings. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: has a statue of the virgin mary stopped god—fearing locals in the philippines from destroying the coral reefs? we hear from the locals. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected.

nausea, bleeding, headaches and the dimming of vision, all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. welcome back.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi, in singapore. i'm sharanjit leyl, in london. our top stories: china's president xi jinping is set to make his final speech at the annual national people's congress. hundreds of residents in australia are told it's not safe to return home after wildfires sweep through a seaside town. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world: the financial times takes a look at facebook‘s bad day. the compa ny‘s share price fell by 7%. that was after allegations of millions of users being exploited for political gain in the us presidential election. the consultancy denies the allegations, though. the straits times says doctors in singapore have been put on notice not to overtreat their patients. spiralling healthcare and insurance costs are being

blamed partly on doctors who are recommending unnecessary procedures. and finally onto the china daily — it may be the year of the dog but it seems cats are having the biggest impact. a feline obsession online has turned into big business. one celebrity cat, called soobin, has its own cooking show and has more than 4 million followers on weibo. i think that is more than you and i combined! now sharanjit, what stories are sparking discussions online? well, you might know her best as miranda from sex and the city but the actress cynthia nixon could one day have a bigger starring role in the big apple. she's announced her candidacy for governor of new york. herfirst hurdle is the democratic primary, where she'll be up against andrew cuomo for the nomination. she made the announcement on twitter, and has generated a lot of conversation. former president barack obama

is in singapore on a week long trip to the region. on monday he met with a small group of emerging leaders from the association of southeast asian nations or asean countries to hear about the work they are doing in their communities and how his charity the obama foundation can support them. viria vichit—vadakan is one them — i spoke to her a short time ago and began by asking how the meeting came about. we were nominated and then i got a call from dc, just asking about my experience and if i would be interested to have a youth voice and talking about how that obama foundation could serve individuals, make an impact in the asean region. i said yes without a doubt, i was really excited to share my perspective and being heard. how did the meeting go? the meeting was incredibly

inspirational. i came out being so fired up to do more. what was incredible about it is we all got the opportunity to share our work, be listened to, and just talk to him very deeply and honestly about what has been difficult, being a youth, leading in the social sector, being able to voice our opinions about issues and being sort of viewed credibly, and i think it was really inspiring to hear other stories from the asean countries as well, and we came out of it very sort of together, really united to do more, notjust as a country but as a region, so it was an incredibly inspiring sessions. but as a region, so it was an incredibly inspiring session. it must be amazing to have president obama listening to you, your opinions. yeah, it was really surreal but he was so...

i would say like human and very kind ofjust normal, and we were kind of starstruck in the beginning but overall, it was an incredible experience to share our thoughts, yeah. tell us exactly what you do, before we let you go. yeah, definitely. i am currently the chief strategy officerfor a corporation and our mission is to improve education, quality and equity. we support social enterprises, start—ups, in order to use technology in order to enhance the school's, student's and teachers‘s experiences of the classroom. and what kind of support you hope to get from obama foundation? yes, so we were very honest about, i think some support very clearly about making us sort of credible in our work, highlighting case studies, making it possible to see that youth can lead and there are many case examples that the obama foundation said that it is definitely possible to kind of have more

of a spotlight on what we're doing. i think another incredible thing that we talked about is how can we leveraged our network more closely, for example, and in thailand in education, there could be other organisations or youth leaders that are working similarly. so a better way for us to share best practices, connects to mentors, and just deeply have the tools to become more effective leaders. eight years ago, a statue of the virgin mary was sunk off the coast of bohol in the philippines, in an attempt to dissuade the god—fearing community there from dynamite fishing. the illegal practice causes huge damage to coral reefs, an essential ecosystem forfish breeding. now a group called the sea knights — who helped to put the statue in place — have returned to assess its success. howard johnson reports. dotted across the blue waters of the pacific ocean

are the 7000 islands that make up the philippines. many of them hours away from the mainland, and that makes policing them incredibly difficult. this man knows that all too well. for years, he was a dynamite fisherman. an illegal practice that risks life and limb, but rewards with lucrative catches. translation: normal fishing is like earning a minimum wage salary compared to illegal fishing, that produces a large sum of fish. fishermen see it as a jackpot income. in 2010, dynamite fishing was so widespread that the local authorities and a group of faith inspired divers decided to take action. they placed a statue of the virgin mary at a site where most of the explosions took place. it was hoped that the god—fearing fishing community would stop illegal activity in the presence

of a religious icon. nearly ten years on, and the sea knights have returned to the statue. apart from paying their respects to the virgin mary today and laying flowers at her feet, biologists within the group will als be looking to assess the health of the coal down there, to see if it has improved the health of the coral down there, to see if it has improved since their last visit. as we descended towards the virgin mary, it became clear that the statue's appearance had undergone a dramatic change. it is now entirely covered in coral. after praying, the sea knights cleaned the statue, removing barnacles and limpets. back on the surface, i spoke to the group's marine biologist. so around the statue, what was the state of the coral? they are also growing.

so positive signs today? yeah, there was positive signs. the local authorities say the virgin mary has reduced the number of dynamite fishers from hundreds to just a handful, but with limited resources, it is unlikely that illegal fishing can be totally eradicated. despite this, the divers continue their work in the community to raise awareness about marine conservation. they will be back in september to celebrate the nativity of the virgin mary. howard johnson, bbc news, bohol, in the philippines. president xi zhang ping is about to deliver the closing speech. let's have a listen in. translation: elect

me, continue to be the president of the people's republic of china. i would like to thank the deputies and the people of the whole country for your trust. as the president of the people's republic of china, the mission is an honour and a huge task. i will, mission is an honour and a huge task. iwill, as mission is an honour and a huge task. i will, as ever, mission is an honour and a huge task. iwill, as ever, execute responsibilities invested in me by the constitution and work to do my

best. to be a good servant of the people, to receive the supervision of the people, and to live up to the expectation of the deputies and the people of the country. all the staff of the state organisations are aware of the state organisations are aware of their positions, have to remember ours is a people's republic of china. we have the people's interest at the highest place. and we have to

remember to work for the people wholeheartedly and work hard for the people's interests and welfare. deputies, people are creators of history, people are real hero is. the development of the people, china, is fast and have long history of civilisation which is created by the chinese people. and this spirit is cultured by the people, the

people of china have undergone through standing up, moving forward and to be stronger. this is the whole process of our strength. the characteristics of the chinese people, not only determine chinese civilisation for centuries, it also determines the progress and development of the contemporary china, to reflect the spiritual world view and long history, the chinese people have made great

contribution to the development of the country and to the development of the civilisation, the chinese people is a nation with great creativity in its long history. the chinese people worked hard to be creative. we have in the history confucius, and other well—known thinkers. we have invented papermaking, gunpowder, compost,

which impact on the development of humankind. we have created poetry, different types of poetry over different types of poetry over different dynasty is. —— dynasty is. we have created moving and have built the great wall of